NEW GLARUS — The Glarner Knights went into the March 22 match against Columbus without any of their four seniors — including star Alexah Mellenberger. The short-staffed squad played a bevy of freshmen and sophomores and were pushed to the brink, but walked off the court victorious in five sets, 26-24, 18-25, 25-20, 20-24, 15-10.

“All four seniors were out so we had three freshmen on the floor, three sophomores and two juniors,” said Kayla Zimmerman, New Glarus head coach. “Young, and we’ve only had a few days to work on our rotations. Lots of adjustments had to be made very quickly.”

Both teams looked superior to the other in stretches all night. The ebbs and flows of the rollercoaster ride were foreshadowed early on. In the opening set, Columbus jumped out to a 15-6 advantage, but rather than calling a timeout, Zimmerman let her young lineup figure out a rhythm themselves. 

“For the most part, I felt like I needed to let them play, find themselves and get into a groove,” Zimmerman said.

Starting with a tip kill from Grace Nommensen, the Knights rattled off 9-straight points with Ellie Eichelkraut at the service line to tie it at 15. Moments later, the run continued thanks to another Nommensen tip kill, and the Knights closed the set on a 10-6 run.

Not just Nommensen, but the collective lineup of Knights players learned early on that tips and rolls were going to be at their advantage, rather than continuously trying to hammer home points on spikes.

“The cool thing about having kids with good volleyball IQ is that they can really read what will work. Over and over Grace tipped right over that block, and it was so effective,” Zimmerman said.

The rollercoaster continued in the second set. Columbus again jumped out to a large early lead (14-6), but this time New Glarus could only get as close as 20-17 before the Cardinals evened up the match at 1-1.

In the third, Columbus led 7-4 before the biggest run of the night benefited the Knights.

A kill by Amber Horn got the sideout, then freshman Lindsey Schadewaldt struck an ace. Columbus struggled on five of six serves to pass the ball from the back row to the front, and Schadewalt and the Knights took advantage, stringing off 12-straight points to go ahead 16-7. 

“Poise — and coming out of a basketball season where she had varsity experience has set her up well for this. She’s really been able to step up into the varsity flow and not have the nerves. She’s got some poise on the court already that she wouldn’t have necessarily had if it wasn’t for basketball,” Zimmerman said.

The Knights would go up by as much as 10 at 23-13, but a late Cardinals rally brought it to within four at 24-20 before Nommensen flushed home a spike to put New Glarus ahead 2-1.

In the fourth set, the Knights opened on an 8-2 run, but the momentum quickly halted. Nommensen briefly paused the game to swap jerseys, and a fluky swing-and-miss spike attempt bounced off the shoulder of Columbus senior Molly Kahl and floated into no-man’s-land of the Knights, stunning all players and coaches on the floor. The two quick Cardinal points started a 15-3 run that put Columbus ahead 17-11 and later led to victory.

The large momentum swings weren’t quite so drawn out in the first-to-15 fifth set. Both teams were squared away at 4-4, but a 3-point run by the Knights made it 7-7. Horn, a sophomore, keyed the spurt with two blocks. All night Horn came up with key blocks in pivotal moments, something Zimmerman said did not go unnoticed.

Columbus tied the score at 7 again, but the Knights closed the set on an 8-3 run thanks to three kills from Nommensen, another block from horn, a tip kill by Marty, and then a hammer spike by Marty to capture the match’s final whistle.

Nommensen led New Glarus with 15 kills, 22 assists, 13 digs, 2 blocks and an ace. Marty had 10 kills, 11 digs, 2 blocks and an ace. Horn had 9 blocks, 7 kills, 6 digs and an ace. Eichelkraut tallied 7 digs, a kill, an ace and two blocks. Schadewalt finished with 19 assists, 4 digs, 6 kills, 4 aces and a block. Veronica Tollackson had 8 digs, and Carrah Bainbridge finished with 22 digs.

“They are all filling their roles,” Zimmerman said.

Schadewaldt took over some of Mellenberger’s duties all night, which was splitting between hitter and setter with Nommensen. Although young, Schadewalt is athletic and has shown the ability to quickly adapt to new responsibilities.

“We’re so fortunate because we’re running a 6-2. We have Grace, who is kind of the anchor right now as far as setting, but Lindsey Schadewalt stepped into this role as a freshman — a job she has not done before — and she’s really learning. We’re going to adjust to her, and not everything has to be perfect,” Zimmerman said. 

The next night the Knights played Belleville and lost in five sets, 26-24, 22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-17. 

Nommensen had 15 kills, 21 assists and 13 digs, while Schadewalt tallied 15 assists, 16 digs, 5 kills and 3 aces. Horn had 9 kills, 5 blocks and 18 digs, with Bainbridge adding 16 digs.

Callie Smith led Belleville with 17 kills. Ava Foley finished the night with 15 kills and 22 blocks. Brooke Everson blocked 14 shots; Alyssa Caskey had 4 aces and Josey Latorre 23 assists.